I’m a user from India, working with names that are written in different scripts (Latin, Tamil, Devanagari) and derived from different languages (Sanskrit, Tamil). Often, the Tamil script transliteration and the Devanagari script transliteration are different, and the way names are spelled in Latin script in records and by people is different than the ISO15919-based transliteration.
Given this, I would like to indicate that a number of given names are actually the same name, but with different spellings. I know that on can use “group as” to group surnames together. Is there any such way to normalize given names?
The only way I see is to add additional Name records each with a variation of the name. You can create additional name Types by simply typing it into the list to specify the type of transliteration. This would allow for adding the various spellings to return as true based upon a single filter.
One drawback of this option is that there would be no overt visual cue to what you are doing.
Alternate names do not normally display in most reports, but they do in the Narrated Web so if you do not want them displaying the Name record can be marked Private. Explore how names are display in your favorite reports.
An alternative would be to repurpose the Nickname field for this purpose. Each variation of the name would have the same Nickname entry. The problem with this option is needing to be careful with the use of Common name options that would utilize this option before the Given name. And of course, you would need to repurpose the Call field for a person’s actual nickname.
One drawback of this option is that there would be no overt visual cue to what you are doing.
I’m fine with this. I should have clarified that one of the motivators of having standardising the names was the ‘Given Names Cloud’ gramplet.
If I add a ‘Normalized Name’ & ‘Tamil Name’ & ‘Devanagari Name’ separately via the Names Editor, will the Normalized Name show up in the ‘Given Names Cloud’?